Mussa Juane, MariamoSeoane, Luís F., 1985-Muñuzuri, Alberto P.Mira, Jorge2020-07-102020-07-102019Mussa Juane M, Seoane LF, Muñuzuri AP, Mira J. Urbanity and the dynamics of language shift in Galicia. Nat Commun. 2019; 10(1):1680. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09688-82041-1723http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45099Sociolinguistic phenomena often involve interactions across different scales and result in social and linguistic changes that can be tracked over time. Here, we focus on the dynamics of language shift in Galicia, a bilingual community in northwest Spain. Using historical data on Galician and Spanish speakers, we show that the rate at which shift dynamics unfold correlates inversely with the internal complexity of a region (approximated by the proportion of urban area). Less complex areas converge faster to steady states, while more complex ones sustain transitory dynamics longer. We further explore the contextual relevance of each region within the network of regions that constitute Galicia. The network is observed to sustain or reverse the dynamic rates. This model can introduce a competition between the internal complexity of a region and its contextual relevance in the network. Harnessing these sociodynamic features may prove useful in policy making to limit conflicts.application/pdfeng© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09688-8Complex networksInterdisciplinary studiesNonlinear phenomenaSocial sciencesSociologyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess